The Feather and the Fork: Food Culture in Medieval Castilian Literature

Abstract

By highlighting central anthropological theories of food and identity—(1) food events, (2) group eating, (3) the act of eating itself, and (4) the idea of consumption—and linking them to medieval portrayals of Iberian diet, this article aims to elucidate societal coding based on a culinary system and reveal unconsidered or unnoted aspects of medieval Castilian culture. Medieval texts are analyzed, including Cantigas de Santa María, Siete Partidas, El libro de Alexandre, and El cantar del Mio Cid.

Keywords:

• Alphonso X
• Cid
• food
• medieval
• Spain

Notes

1. Constable translates this succinctly into English: “Moreover, we forbid any Christian man or woman to invite a Jew or a Jewess, or to accept an invitation from them, to eat or drink together, or to drink any wine made by their hands” (Constable, Medieval Iberia 272).

2. Palacio could mean “palace,” or it could mean the front room of a noble house where gatherings would occur. Either use suggests the event's formality.

3. John Keller points out that this representation of bread is the same found in excavations of Pompeii on page 25 of his book, Daily Life in the Cantigas de Santa Maria, which reiterates the connection between classical and medieval diets.